Stanley Nwanosike
The five-member Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Ward Congresses Electoral Committee for Anambra said the congress was held and concluded on Sunday at the designated collation centres in Awka, the state capital.
The Chairman, Congress Electoral Committee for Anambra, Jibrin Ahmed, said this on Monday in Enugu while reading out a letter addressed to the National Chairman of the PDP on the congress.
Ahmed noted that it was on record that the election was “free, fair and successfully concluded” except for the alleged incidence of holding members of the committee hostage for over two hours.
Thy were subsequently rescued by the operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS).
He explained that the purported cancellation of the three-man ad-hoc delegate congress elections for Anambra was untrue.
The chairman said that the current video of the cancellation was stage managed and done under duress when the lives of the committee members were threatened by some party faithful.
The letter reads in part: “However, due to security situation in Anambra State, the chairman in his wisdom decided that we postponed to the next day, Sunday, May 1, 2022 and communicated same to the administrative secretary.
“We got to the party secretariat at about 11 a.m. on Sunday and addressed the party members and stakeholders present and thereafter we distributed the electoral materials, including the original results sheets to the designated three-man electoral panel of the 21 local government areas.
“After the distribution, some party faithful stormed the party’s secretariat (venue of the congress) and insisted that we give them the original results sheets on the grounds that the list of three-man local government area electoral panel being used for the exercise was not favourable to them.
“They locked the entrance and compelled the committee to do a letter cancelling the exercise and thereafter forced us to do a press conference.
“They initially compelled the committee to sign the photocopies of the results in our possession and issued same to the people on their own list of three-man local government electoral panel.
“They later rescinded the decision and asked us to cancel the exercise outright. We handed over the signed photocopies to them through the administrative Secretary of the party, Mr Casmir Ajulu.
“The men of the DSS later rescued us after being held hostage for more than two hours. We them proceeded to the collation centre, Bon Hotel, a place chosen due to lack of electricity and security at the party’s secretariat and concluded the exercise”.
The letter was duly signed by the electoral committee members, Jibrin Ahmed (Chairman); Captain Frank Ntima (rtd) (Member), Hon. Amara Ogbu (Member); Mr Azubuike Odoh (Member) and Mr Ogbonna Victor (Secretary).
The letter was copied to the National Secretary of PDP; National Organising Secretary of PDP; Resident Electoral Commissioner, INEC Anambra State; Commissioner of Police in Anambra State; Director, DSS Anambra State and Commandant of Civl Defence Corps. (NAN)
